THE ART OF TYPE

Tim Youd had a typewriter mystery on his hands.

He was out to find the make and model Bram Stoker used to type the famous vampire novel “Dracula,” published in 1897. But he could find no photos or records with that information.

Enter Shanna Early, instruction archivist at Emory’s  Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives and Rare Books Library. She came to the rescue by sending Youd scanned pages of a facsimile edition of the author’s manuscript, which Youd passed along to a trusted typewriter expert.

The good news: The expert identified the machine, a Hammond No. 2 — one of the earliest typewriters produced commercially. The bad news: While Youd owns more than 100 typewriters, none of them was that model.

After several blind alleys, Youd tracked down a functioning one in North Carolina.

And that is the Hammond No. 2 the visual and performance artist will bring to Emory’s Robert W. Woodruff Library to retype “Dracula” in its entirety.

His live typing performance is a centerpiece of Emory Libraries’ “Striking Characters: Typewriters, Literary Worlds and the Art of Tim Youd,” which opened in late August and continues through Dec. 20 in the library’s Schatten Gallery.

Early co-curated the unique, living exhibit with Hannah C. Griggs, humanities librarian for English at Woodruff Library.

For more than 13 years, Youd has retyped works of great literature in places associated with them on the models of typewriters used by the original authors. He calls it his “100 Novels Project.”

His live performances for the “Striking Characters” exhibit are set for Sept. 19-Oct. 17, from 1-5 p.m. each Sunday through Friday. In addition to the novel “Dracula,” he will retype the screenplay of “The Wizard of Oz” on a Smith Premier — the same make of typewriter used by L. Frank Baum, who wrote “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” the book on which the movie is based.

Youd’s Schatten Gallery workspace is bedecked with his colorful artwork from his typing projects. These include a diptych — an image on two panels — that he created by retyping the 2018 novel “An American Marriage” by Tayari Jones, Emory’s Charles Howard Candler Professor of English and Creative Writing.

Youd’s prints and sculptures are joined by, what else? Historic typewriters from the Rose Library archives.

The Rose houses more than 200,000 volumes of rare books and 800 years’ worth of historical objects — including the world’s most expansive Bram Stoker collection.

“Striking Characters” displays “Dracula” manuscripts, movie posters and other ephemera celebrating the vampire tale’s undying popularity. It also features costume designs and other items from the original Broadway production of “The Wiz” and images from a first edition of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” by L. Frank Baum.

There will be a conversation with Youd and the exhibit’s curators followed by a tour of the exhibit on Wednesday, Oct. 1, at 7 p.m. That talk will take place in the Jones Room, on the third floor of Woodruff Library.

Along with the fun, says Early, the exhibit provides an opportunity to consider the typewriter’s impact on the ways we communicate.

“People began the 19th century using quill pens to write,” she notes. “And then, within the century, typewriters were invented, and they transformed everything.”

With typewriters came the ability to produce creative work quickly and legibly, expanding the literary world into one that was more accessible and democratized. The mass production of the typewriter in the early 20th century also meant that information could be disseminated more widely; the machine has played an instrumental role in resistance movements and community organizing around the world.  

Early and Griggs, who both have PhDs in English, conducted extensive research for this exhibition, and included a bibliography for visitors eager to read more about the contents of “Striking Characters.” 

“We wanted to put Youd’s work in conversation with literary and typewritten archives from our special collections,” says Griggs, “and introduce the Emory community to ways of thinking about writing that they might not be familiar with.”  

“We’re thrilled to bring Tim’s work to the Emory community,” says Valeda Dent, vice provost of libraries and museum. “It is entirely unique, and the way our curators have chosen to engage with the narrative surrounding the exhibition will delight everyone who interacts with it. We guarantee the Emory community has never seen anything like this.”

A literary sense of place

A few years before he began the project, Youd and his wife took a trip to Hemingway’s home in Key West. It got him thinking about what he calls “literary pilgrimage.”

 “You know,” he quips, “what does it mean to buy the coffee mug and say, ‘I was at Ernest Hemingway’s house’? I think the idea that you could sit down at William Faulkner’s typewriter and write like Faulkner is magical thinking, right? But in our pop culture, that’s what we fetishize: If you could wear Elvis’s jacket, you’d be the king!”

The project is not about becoming the writer, Youd says. It is about getting as close as possible to the books Youd loves.

He has typed at the homes of many authors, as well as on a bridge in California and in a lighthouse in England. He even worked next to Chicago’s Union Stockyard gate, where he retyped Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle,” the famous 1904 muckraking novel that exposed the meat industry’s deadly working conditions.

“Striking Characters” marks Youd’s first time retyping in an archive.

He says he finds it a compelling way to think about location and literature.

“You know, I could go to Bram Stoker’s castle in Ireland, or I could also, very validly, sit in a library in Atlanta that has this incredible Bram Stoker collection and connect to the art that way,” he says. “It is fascinating to think about how the manuscripts and ephemera continue to live on in these archives, and how they are part of Bram Stoker’s story.”  

Close reading

Spending seven or eight hours with a book each day, retyping every word, inspires a unique sense of focus, says Youd.

As a teenager, he fell in love with Carson McCullers’ “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter” when he read it for school.

“But I don’t think I understood it in anywhere near the depth that I did when I retyped it at McCullers’ childhood home in Columbus just a couple years ago,” he says.

The project has also prompted him to think about the big picture.

“Literature is mostly about the passing of time,” he says. “The end of the book is often the end of the lives of the characters. And I think that dovetails with my understanding of the value of trying to be a good reader when that book is in your hands, because it might not be in your hands again.”

Tayari Jones appreciates Youd’s attentiveness to the words on the page as he retyped “An American Marriage.”

“No one has ever read my work as closely as he has,” Jones says, “because he has retyped the whole thing. I really enjoyed discussing the novel with him and hearing what his thoughts and opinions were. His ideas are so nuanced.”

She adds that the finished diptych mirrors the way she feels after writing a novel.

“When you finish,” she says, “you feel like that piece of paper — just battered beyond recognition. But also, I feel like I’ve been touched by art.”

Each diptych is also its own memory, recalling to Youd the process of creation.

He has retyped Jack Kerouac’s work while looking out over the crashing Pacific and Flannery O’Connor’s writing while listening to the strange calls of peacocks at her Georgia farm, Andalusia. He has hunkered down during a Mississippi tornado warning while retyping “The Sound and the Fury” by William Faulkner and in a Midwestern ice storm while retyping Ernest Hemingway’s “A Farewell to Arms.”

Youd’s experience is present in the finished piece of art, he says, “in the same way that the novel is in there.”

Despite his project’s name, he has no plans to stop after 100 books, although he won’t lock himself into a new number either.

“I don’t know exactly how it’s going to work,” he says, “but I don’t think I’ll ever stop typing.”